1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in paintball markers used to launch paintballs. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements particularly suited for remote operation of paintball markers away from a compressed gas bottle or other source. In particular, the present invention relates specifically to a compressed spring operated paintball marker with a compression mechanism.
2. Description of the Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the basic construction for a paintball marker has always used a compressed gas source controlled through a valve to release pressure to launch a paintball. An illustrative patents disclosing information relevant to this construction is U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,939, issued to Perrone on Sep. 27, 1994 entitled Semi-Automatic Gun. Conversely, BB guns or air pellet guns have used spring compression mechanisms for generating the firing pressures. Illustrative patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,312, issued to Wilkenson, et al. on Jul. 7, 1988 entitled Spring Air Gun with Interlocking Mechanism; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,723, issued to Resuggan, on Jan. 11, 1983, entitled Air Gun with Piston Fully Cocked in Plurality of Stages. All of these patents are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety. It is believed that the boundaries of these different technologies has never been crossed to allow for a paintball to be launched using compressed air generated within a paintball marker by spring released energy driving a compression piston. From these prior references it may be seen that these prior art patents are very limited in their teaching and utilization, and an improved paintball marker is needed to overcome these limitations.